RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) has established an investment fund aimed at curbing Palestinian poverty, the bank's governor in Palestine announced this month. The fund will help finance the Palestinian People’s Economic Empowerment Institution. The Palestinian government has given instructions to the Ministry of Social Development to prepare to launch the institution in mid-2019.
The institution will battle poverty in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, on the basis of the 2017-2022 National Policy Agenda launched on Feb. 22, 2017. Its ultimate goal is to help the Palestinian Authority (PA) wipe out poverty by 2030, in line with a United Nations plan launched in August 2015.
The institution is an extension of the IsDB-funded Deprived Families Economic Empowerment Program (DEEP), which the UN Development Program has been implementing under the PA’s supervision since 2006. The DEEP program seeks to empower marginalized families and teach them to be self-sufficient instead of relying on charities and humanitarian aid.
Daoud al-Deek, assistant deputy minister of the Ministry of Social Development, explained that the institution will operate on a wider scale than the ministry. While the ministry provides poor families with financial aid, the institution will invest with the poor to help empower them, told Al-Monitor.
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